Five Sultans

[dharper]

Interlude: Murad II

June 13, 1444
Somewhere in Azerbaijan

They were there, waiting.

The Sultan cursed when he heard the news. He had hoped to steal up on the Qara Koyunlu with a forced march into their territory from Nuyssaybin. Instead, he found them waiting, never having taken a step into Kurdistan. A trap.

From what his spies had told him, this was the entire army of the white sheep. Compared to Murad's Anatolian Turks, the White Sheep Turks were a disorderly lot that hadn't changed at all since the time of Timur the Lame. But the one advantage they surely had was numbers. The White Sheep soldiers, like the Mongols, were a kind of nomad, and they made up an ideal cavalry force. Murad knew his Timariots couldn't compete with a lifetime spent on horseback, so he had left them behind. Instead, he had brought only his personal household guard - two thousand of the best cavalry he could train. His scouts were coming back with tales of three thousand horse against him, and already, things were looking bad.

The war was looking worse and worse. It seemed as if his vassals existed only to cause him trouble. Murad spit, trying to force the taste of dust out of his mouth. It didn't work, although one of his servants came up to him with a skin of water. It tasted like horse piss, which was worse. No wonder his men were urged on by visions of nymphs serving them fruit in Paradise...Allah knew Murad was beginning to wonder why he'd ever left the palace himself. It was going to be one of those days.

"Tell me about the enemy," he commanded. Three scouts pushed forward, knocking against each other in their eagerness to be first. Murad sighed. Surely his generals didn't have this kind of problem...

"Great Sultan, there are two armies waiting atop the hill." Murad winced. "We estimate about 30,000 foot and 3,000 horse in roughly equal forces." The Ottomans only had 17,000 foot.

"Who leads them?" Murad asked wearily.

The scouts looked at each other, not so eager this time. What could it be now? "We don't know, Oh Sultan," said one. "There were banners, but none we recognized." Murad began to have hope. None they recognized? Then there surely could be no great leader. In fact...

"Which general is in command?" he asked. The scouts looked puzzled. "Well?" he snapped. "Which general leads both armies?" The scouts gaped at him. Murad waved a hand at them and they scattered like flies. The sultan smiled. The fools.

The tribal system of the Qara Koyunlu was their greatest strength - and their greatest weakness. It gave them horse-warriors beyond peer in this part of the world, but it also gave them clan rivalries and feuds that only became worse when you tried to put different clans together in one army. The two camps suddenly made sense - neither side would give in to the other's command.

"I have an idea," he said, and smiled. The scouts turned white. He grew irritated with them and waved them out of the tent. "Fetch me maps!" he shouted, and instantly servants scurried into the shade of the tent, carrying rolled-up parchment.

Hamza Bey walked in as well. "My liege," he said neutrally, bowing on one knee. "Great news has reached us." The Sultan raised a single eyebrow, and the general grinned. "Our forces have won a great victory in Syria!" he shouted, and the Sultan gave a great cry of relief. "We sent them running! Our forces took four thousand prisoners and equal numbers wounded and dead. By now, they have surely reached Egypt, how fast they ran!"

The Sultan slapped his knee in delight and called for ice - a luxury brought from Kurdistan's mountains by fast runner. This called for a celebration. He and the general raised mugs of fragrant nectar and drank greedily.

"Hamza, old friend..." The Sultan grew reflective for a moment. "I have changed my mind." The general looked at him with askance. "I have decided...we shall not stop at Aleppo! We will take all of Syria - and the lands of the white sheep, too!"

The general smiled now, like a cat - an unnerving little habit the general carefully cultivated to keep his officers from getting too ambitious. "And who shall lead your armies in such a grand campaign?" he asked.

The king raised an eyebrow. "Do not get too ambitious, my lord. I am still in command. And, in fact, I have already ascertained how to deal with the armies awaiting us on yon hill." The general nodded, although his smile had slipped. "We will begin with a double line of troops - irregulars in front and janissaries behind. The Spathi will cover the right flank, here--" and he pushed some chits on the map to show the formation he intended. "Now, in the midst of battle, our left will gradually fall back, so--" and he moved the chits again. The general was looking more and more interested. "Naturally, it will be too much for them to resist. While the right remains a threat--"

The general pushed the enemy counters forward. "The enemy leaders won't be able to make a new plan on the spur of the moment. One army will advance to take advantage. The other will fall back, lacking protection from the Spathi." He rubbed his beard. "So it separates them. But--"

"--The center will fall back on itself," interrupted the sultan. "Leaving the right in a holding action, the center and left will fall upon the army of the left, giving it no room to manuever - and no chance to escape."

The general scowled. "That will be hard on the men in the right flank, Great Sultan," he said stiffly. He cared about his men, Murad knew. A weakness.

"That is why you will be in charge of the right," said the sultan. "And of the Spathi." The Sultan's personal guard. A rare favor. Knowing better, the general nevertheless felt his back straightening.

"You are my commander, oh great one," Hamza said, bowing. "Let us teach these Turks a lesson." And let us pray that there truly is a paradise, for a great many believers shall die on the morrow.

 

[dharper]

The Kurdish War in Azerbaijan

When the main Ottoman armies reached Azerbaijan, they found two Qara Koyunlu armies waiting for them. At a disadvantage in numbers and cavalry, Murad II, personally leading his forces, was able to take advantage of the situation and his troop's high morale to win the battle. As soon as the Qara Koyunlu commander had realized the trap, he had withdrawn. And as soon as the one army began to withdraw the other left as well, leaving the Ottomans, exhausted, in control of the hill.

But despite the victory, the fight was inconclusive. 4,000 Ottoman foot and 500 Spathi had died, while 5,000 Qara Koyunlu had been killed. The white sheep forces were still strong, still a threat.

The Sultan took charge of a detachment and pushed north into Daghestan, dealing with its small garrison quickly and settling down to a siege. This left Hamza Bey in charge of the Ottoman armies in Azerbaijan. He was to be the senior officer when the Qara Koyunlu returned in October.

On October 2, 1444, the Second Battle of Azerbaijan was fought. The makeup of the battle was eerily similar. General Hamza commanded 17,000 foot and 2,000 horse, while his white sheep counterpart - having since combined the two armies into one - possessed 30,000 foot and 2,000 horse. Unable to make serious headway against the Ottoman positions, the white sheep fell back, unsuited to drawn-out combat. This time, Hamza Bey took most of his force away from the siege to pursue, and the war reached Baghdad. A series of clashes against the demoralized white sheep would continue for another year.

Meanwhile, the following spring led to the collapse of the Mameluk forces in Syria. When Syria fell, the Mameluks sued for peace. The fight went out of the Mameluk forces with this, and the Ottomans were able to occupy all of Syria and Palestine, even reaching the capital in Egypt. In Cairo, the Mameluks gave up suzerainty over all of Syria to the Ottomans, ceding Syria, Aleppo and Lebanon. And in the east, the white sheep gave up all their western possessions, Azerbaijan and Daghestan, to the forces of Hamza Bey.

But before they made peace, the Qara Koyunlu had one final trick up their sleeve. They called on their cousins in the Golden Horde for aid, and the Horde agreed. Seeking a quick end to the war, the Sultan hastily arranged for a peace with them. But the Sultan had not realized the situation: the Horde's issue was not with the Turks, but the Kurds. Ten thousand Hordesmen were in Daghestan at the time of the surrender, and they doggedly pushed into Kurdistan.

Bound by his own word to the Horde's leader, the Sultan stood by, impotent, as the Horde laid waste to his vassals. Although never the most organized of armies, the Horde was too strong for the Kurds, weakened as they were by the course of the war. In 1448, the Kurds finally fell, and the Horde occupied Kurdistan as their own.

The only bright side of the whole messy situation was the breakup of the Golden Horde shortly thereafter. With frequent rebellions to put down, the Horde soon sorely missed the armies they had spent occupying Kurdistan - itself the source of much of their misery. The Kurds would not put up with Horde overlordship and soon were taking advantage of their separation from the Horde to rebel frequently, if not with much success.

Murad himelf would not survive to see the breakup of the Horde. Although his victory in the south was complete and he had expanded the size of the empire enormously, he knew no little vexation, and it is said that he died unhappy. The one deed he is said to be proud of was to finally bring Teke into the empire itself. Having witnessed the clash of incredible armies, Teke agreed to join the empire in 1448, three years before the sultan's death. The Sultan would accomplish nothing else of note before he passed away in 1451.

In his reign, the Sultan had tremendously expanded the empire, from an important Turkish state in Rum to a regional superpower in the Middle East. He had gotten involved in wars outside the Ottoman sphere of influence and had made the country richer and more powerful than it had ever been. But he had also angered the rest of the world, leaving his successor with much to live down. For many years after his death, the empire would be quiescent.

 

[Vandelay]

Love this AAR! The Ottomans are surely a favourite and you write them well. A screenshot maybe?

Cheers,
Vandelay

 

[dharper]

Originally posted by Vandelay
Love this AAR! The Ottomans are surely a favourite and you write them well. A screenshot maybe?

As requested...here are two screenshots, one for each Sultan's achievements so far.

What other kinds of screenshots (if any) would people like to see?

 

[dharper]

Second Sultan: Mehmed II Fatih (1451-1481)

Mehmed II was the second great sultan to emerge after the defeat of Ankara. Mehmed was a great administrator, a ruler who reigned unchallenged for three decades, a capable diplomat and a master strategist who also rode with his men and acted as a general - indeed, a general without peer in his age. In short, he was the ideal leader and one of the greatest rulers of all time.

Mehmed had a dream, a dream of Constaninople, a dream of a new Roman empire, spreading across the globe like a giant. Despite his fearsome reputation as a general, or perhaps because of it, Mehmed fought very few battles during his reign, which was renowned in Ottoman history as being an island of calm and prosperity, a time in which the engorged empire could assimilate its conquests and plant the basis of its future glory.

Yet, somehow, there was a sense of opportunities missed...

 

[dharper]

Mehmed II

"By Allah's will I have risen to the throne of the empire - the greatest of the muslim empires. Truly I can say this, for I have witnessed the fall of giants in my days. Here I shall recount my tale."

"In winter's chill I was crowned sultan. The old sultan had died with a heavy heart, and I was instilled with a thirst to avenge him. Yet over many hours of reading through the Koran, I was troubled by these feelings. Was there truly anything that excused a muslim raising his hand against another? Men could and did give me many reasons, but I put off such things for a while."

"Even as I deliberated in Constantinople, great and terrible happenings were occurring elsewhere. The Timurid Empire, that great power to the east, had begun an orgy of self-destruction. It was strange, I felt, to walk down the corridors of the palace and see nary a man who had not counselled my father to tread lightly with the heirs of Timur, yet now was counselling me to take vengeance! Even to this day, however, I feel I took the course of wisdom by abstaining from such a course. The disintegration of the empire was a bloody, drawn-out conflict that was to absorb the attentions and the soldiers of a dozen nations for a generation. Even now, it rages, abated by time yet still uncontrolled, and I see in their fate my own - should I take rash action."

"I think that the fate of the Timurids pressed upon me the fact that no empire can be forged when the people do not think as one. Being a religious man myself, I reflected on the many different faiths of the empire. My father had gone so far as to purge the empire of its most extreme cults, and I would continue his work. No sooner had I come to the throne than I was presented with just such an opportunity. In the northeastern frontier of the empire, the locals were Christians, and had been growing disquieted for some time. Upon investigation, my agents reported to me a link between the Armenians and their neighbors, the Georgians. Seeing how the Georgians had suffered against the Qara Koyunlu, I resolved to rid myself of their influence once and for all."

 

[dharper]

The Northern War (1451-54)

Dubbed 'the War of Loose Ends' by pundits at the time, this war was actually comprised of three related but physically separate conflicts waged around the same time. The Ottomans waged war against Georgia, Rhodes and the Golden Horde.

In 1451, newly-crowned sultan Mehmed II declared war on the tiny black sea principality of Georgia. The people there had resisted all attempts to convert them since the withdrawal of the Romans. Theirs was a history of occupation, struggle and, eventually, survival, if not triumph. History has a way of retelling the same story again and again. This is one such story.

The prince of Georgia called on the Knights of St. John for aid. The knights had always attracted the most stubborn and brave - some said stupid - sort, and they honored their pact of brotherhood with the Georgians and attacked the empire. But this call was a kind of desperation, for the Georgian army collapsed in the face of superior Ottoman numbers. A year later, Georgia lay in ruins and the country surrendered to the sultan, becoming a province of the empire. Yet not all was lost - in nearby Sochi, the Christians living under the rule of the white sheep had taken advantage of the war against their masters to rebel, and they re-founded the kingdom of Georgia there only months after the defeat of their cousins. Although he had won the war, the sultan was embarassed politically and, worse, had tied his own hands by making peace weeks before.

In the mediterranean, the knights were causing problems with shipping, and the sultan resolved to take advantage of the situation to rid himself of the knights once and for all. Rabid Christians, the knights' island of Rhodes had been an important supply base for the crusaders when they invaded Anatolia the last time, and the sultan had resolved not to let it happen again. The knights themselves were fanatics who seemed to enjoy killing muslims, and their kind had to be made an example of.

In the mediterranean, the Ottomans made use of their fleet on a large scale for the first time in their history. The Ottoman fleet was made up of remnants of other fleets, collected and reorganized into a single body. There were Greek dromonds, Turkish galleys and European warships along with a few converted merchanters. Altogether they made a sizeable force, but not a well-organized one. They did not fight as a single unit and they were not modern or of great quality, yet they got the job done. The knights of Rhodes had a large navy, but had sent it to prey on Ottoman shipping. When the invasion fleet arrived at Rhodes, they faced only a handful of ships, easily dispatched.

The Ottomans would invade Rhodes three times. Although badly outnumbered, the knights turned back two assaults at great cost to the Turks. The third assault pushed the knights back to their fortress, but did not win the war. The siege would continue for two long years, with the Ottomans unable to completely stop supplies from reaching the knights, before the knights surrendered. Again, the Ottomans won the war, and again, the sultan was embarassed. For having congratulated himself on ridding the muslim world of their menace, the knights were reinstated on Malta, thanks to the generosity of the Aragonese crown. The sultan became a laughingstock among his fellow rulers.

The Horde had taken Kurdistan before Mehmed took the throne, and he had vowed to make amends for the injustice. Witnessing the troubles to the north, the previous sultan had hoped the Kurds would free themselves, but as time passed without result, Mehmed gave up on his predecessor's policy and declared war on his cousins. The unpopular war was almost a crime. With its own people up in arms and a war against the Uzbeks in place, the Ottoman invasion was seen as a betrayal by the Horde. After only a few skirmishes, the Horde grudingly gave up Kurdistan to buy peace. Sadly, the triumph was seen as tainted, and despite the best of intentions, the sultan soon found himself feared, insulted and scorned by his neighbors. Compared to the news from Europe, only then reaching muslim lands, it was surely the act of a bully. For on the distant continent, the French king had thrown off the English invaders that had occupied his lands and claimed all the lands of the French for his own - all save a single English outpost in the far south, called Bearn.

The wars of these years not only convinced Mehmed of the futility of using war to achieve his aims, it also soured him on expansion. Mehmed desired to be respected by all, and so he turned his gaze inwards for the rest of his reign.

 

[dharper]

Mehmed II

"The first years of my reign were the blackest, I think. One bright spot I remember clearly. I led my troops in war personally, and although I laughed and cried with my men, I was also their leader, and I looked at them with a leader's eyes. They were brave men, yes - but they were not all soldiers. I respected the janissaries for their training and indominatable courage. Ah, if my army were made up of more men like those! Ready to die for Allah, knowing eternal reward awaited them...and so when I returned to Constantinople I opened a great college, the 'Enderrun'. There I could train new soldiers for my armies, and there I could train administrators, governors - and missionaries."

"The old sultan had faced down the wrath of Allah - and had repented. To his sorrow, he had spent the rest of his reign doing the work of Allah among the people, but only at the very end of his life did he succeed, to a degree. At last, at the beginning of my reign, I had missionaries willing to go to strange lands to bring the true faith to their people. This was opportune for me, for the aquisition of Daghestan had been a poor thing, if I may speak ill of my predecessor. The people there held the same, strange faith as the heretics of Nuyssaybin had. I sent the mullahs there, and in time they had converted them back to righteousness, but it worried at me and would not let go. Had I offended Allah so? Or had it been something the empire itself had done? Things could not continue the way they had done, that was certain. I confessed my sins to the mullahs and cried when they absolved me. I would be a righteous sultan - a commander not only of armies, but of souls."

"I faced many challenges in my reign. I realize now that the army, which I tried so long and hard to reform and modernize, was paralyzed by my changes. In 1460 General Hamza died and in 1468 General Iksander passed away, leaving only one man in charge of the army - myself. Near the end of my reign, I ponder how the army will fare when it lacks my leadership. Yet that is neither here nor there."

"The Romanians insulted us again and again, most notably when Vlad the Impaler slew our soldiers in horrific manners. Yet we had no claim to Wallachia and I turned the other cheek - and was scorned for it. These days, I wonder if I watched too much and did too little. I watched and did nothing as the Mameluks warred with their neighbors, taking Numidia to the south and Tunis to the west. I watched as the Timurids slowly self-destructed, losing their Baluchi vassals in the south in a great conflict. I watched as the white sheep regained their strength and absorbed the Caliphate."

"That was surely a turning point. It happened in 1475, as the Christians account time, and it completely changed me. The last true Caliph had died long before I was born, but some pretenders still managed to carry on their legacy in a mockery in Basra. Now that line was gone, and I was cheered - yet strangely, disappointed. For who would then lead the faithful? I cast about for a leader, and I knew that others were doing the same. We had been so long with our unity that this bickering of the past century felt like an eyeblink. Another would have to become Caliph. But who could be accepted by all Islam?"

"The Abbasid Caliphs had been desposed by the Mongols, who left only a pale shade in Basra. Before them, the Fatamid Caliphs had been deposed by the Mameluks, who themselves were feared by many, depended on by many, but loved by none. Before even them, the Umayyad Caliphs had fled to Spain to rally an army that never materialized, and had ruled for centuries in the golden cities of Seville and Cordoba - and had been defeated by the Christians. Even in my rule, the faithful of Iberia were expelled from their ancestral homes and fled to Africa. So, then, there were none who could return and take the mantle up. A new caliph must be called. So, one of us successors."

"The Timurids were powerful, but nobody now lived in fear of them the way we all had a generation ago. Trade and news further east were sparse, and in a sense, the muslim world had shrunk to our tiny corner of the world. The Qara Koyunlu were landlords, not rulers of men. The Golden Horde was fighting desperately to save itself - and smacked of its Mongol origins besides. And Africa? The Turks had held the Caliphate until the Mongols came, and before them, the Arabs. They were not ready to give it up to the blacks or the berbers. And the Ottomans? Time and time again it came down to that. But I would not - I could not - claim it for myself."

"That was my greatest weakness. For without a leader, the muslims of the world were small and afraid. I should have put my own soul at peril for taking Muhammed's role rather than risk the loss of all he dreamt of. But...I did not, and still...I cannot. I leave that to you, my successor."

 

[dharper]

Mehmed II: A Look Back

Mehmed would gain the title 'Commander of the Faithful' for his work in bringing sunniism to so many people. During his reign, he converted Daghestan (1455), Adana (1456), Morea (1459) and Rumelia (1464). In its martial sense, he was renowned for building the Enderrun (1454) and reforming the army (1459), continuing the work of his predecessor. But the title he preferred to use was 'Lawgiver', which he gained when he codified the laws of the Turks and placed them at an equal status as the laws of Islam and the old Roman laws many of his subjects still used.

His reign was blessed by three exceptional years (1461, 63 and 71), and he took full advantage of them, bringing inflation down and encouraging industry and invention, with spectacular success. He sponsored industry and art that would survive for centuries in Smyrna and Daghestan (1464), Morea (1470), Armenia (1474), Syria (1477) and Kastamonu (1481). In this, he was aided by the Ottoman innovativeness and secular nature he so despised, which brought with it much acceptance of new ideas and thoughts from Europe. Before the end of his reign, the Ottomans were to become the world's largest producers of wool, naval supplies and iron ore, as well as one of the most prolifigate traders, with significant interests in every major trading center across Europe and the Middle East.

But all this would prove to be less than enough for his successor's appetites...

 

[dharper]

 

[Vandelay]

He sponsored industry and art that would survive for centuries in Smyrna and Daghestan (1464), Morea (1470), Armenia (1474), Syria (1477) and Kastamonu (1481).

I gather these provinces now have manufactories?

Too bad your reputation didn´t allow you to really cut loose with Mehmed II - IRL Beyazid II was the pacific one (relatively - he did conquer a few provinces and cities).

I´m hoping Selim will gobble up the Mamluks as he historically did and then Suleiman is all set for a Crusade against Hungary and that Austrian dude who calls himself emperor.

Cheers,
Vandelay

 

[Mad King James]

Ran out of CB's did you

You'll get plenty more in a few years heh heh

 

[dharper]

Originally posted by Mad King James
Ran out of CB's did you

You'll get plenty more in a few years heh heh

Ran out of CBs AND reputation!! My reputation is fast becoming the killer here - my limits in the game are the 5 sultans and the reputation: I won't annex anything if my reputation rises above slightly tarnished.

That may have been a mistake, but I can still take Egypt...and maybe...just maybe...Hungary, too...we'll see, won't we?

 

[dharper]

Originally posted by Vandelay

I gather these provinces now have manufactories?

That's right...it seemed a little crass to just say that. He got one invention (goods in Daghestan), built two art colleges and three refineries. I couldn't exactly call them refineries in the alcohol-spurning Ottoman empire, though!

Too bad your reputation didn´t allow you to really cut loose with Mehmed II - IRL Beyazid II was the pacific one (relatively - he did conquer a few provinces and cities).

I´m hoping Selim will gobble up the Mamluks as he historically did and then Suleiman is all set for a Crusade against Hungary and that Austrian dude who calls himself emperor.

I'm hoping so, too...I haven't gotten that far yet, although I'm getting close. Facing a combined Austria-Hungary is going to be a serious problem, though - Hungary has LandMil 4, but Austria has LandMil 10!

 

[Mad King James]

You should go to war with Venice for those islands, and Bosnia for Serbia

 

[dharper]

Originally posted by Mad King James
You should go to war with Venice for those islands, and Bosnia for Serbia

I did.

 

[Mad King James]

Heh heh great minds think alike

 

[dharper]

Sorry...

It looks like I won't be able to continue this AAR, at least for the moment. I'm experiencing a consistent CtD in 1509 that's preventing me from finishing.

It's too bad, as I'd really like to play Selim and take on Egypt, or Suleyman and Hungary.

If anybody has any suggestions, I'll take 'em.

Sorry about this...